


The Khalni Heart

by Spaceyjdjames



Category: Magic: The Gathering (Card Game)
Genre: Break Up, F/F, Fix-It of Sorts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-15
Updated: 2019-11-15
Packaged: 2021-01-30 20:36:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,273
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21434335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spaceyjdjames/pseuds/Spaceyjdjames
Summary: In War of the Spark: Forsaken, following the revelation of mutual love between Chandra and Nissa, we finally get to see the couple explore their feelings for each other, right? Nope! Instead they split to little fanfare, handwaving their profession of love as "platonic all along".Can I do better? I like to think so. It is a low bar, after all.
Relationships: Chandra Nalaar/Nissa Revane, Gideon Jura/Chandra Nalaar
Comments: 10
Kudos: 41





	The Khalni Heart

Chandra stepped out of the Blind Eternities, the air sizzling around her as her protective magic dissipated. She breathed in the air deeply, and despite the stale dust in the air--the remnant of the Eldrazi's damage to the plane--it was refreshing. Zendikar smelled... natural. Simple. Ocean breeze, a hint of forest.

Unlike the bustling city-plane of Ravnica--_the plane where Gideon died_\--swarming with people, aromas of dung and oxide and spices and coffee all commingling into one overwhelming smell. No, simple was good. Simple was what Chandra needed right now. Simple, like Zendikar, like... Nissa.

Chandra smiled as Nissa saw her. Maybe her first authentic smile in the weeks since... She shook the thought from her mind. _You're on Zendikar, remember? What better place for new beginnings?_

Nissa returned the smile, which was rare for her. It was gone in a moment as her gaze drifted back to her ravaged homeworld, the people working to rebuild, the dust storms of empty matter blowing in the distance. But for a moment, she had smiled, and that smile was for Chandra. Despite her pyromantic abilities, Chandra didn't think she had ever felt so warm inside.

"Hey," she said awkwardly, raising one hand in a wave that felt totally wrong. "I'm, uh, really glad to see you again."

Nissa walked closer. She was a little shorter than Chandra, so she looked up into Chandra's eyes, before staring back down to the dirt again. "I'm... really glad to see you, too."

Chandra wanted to hook Nissa's chin with her finger and pull her face up so she could see her eyes again. She wanted to keep Nissa's face there and lean forward into it and kiss her, feel her lips, touch her pale skin. She settled for a hug, as awkward as the wave. Worse, even.

Nissa tensed for a moment, and Chandra almost pulled away, but then the elf relaxed, leaning into the hug so deeply Chandra was afraid they might both fall.

"I'm glad you came," Nissa whispered. Muffled by Chandra's armor, she barely heard it. She wouldn't have if Nissa's mouth weren't so close to her ear. Her breath tickled Chandra's neck.

"Of course. We are the Gatewatch." Nissa tensed back up at the mention of the group. She pulled out of the hug. Chandra didn't want to let her, she wanted the embrace to never end, but she didn't fight the elf. _Shit,_ thought Chandra. _I should have known not to mention the Gatewatch. We're all mourning him, not just me._

"I'm sorry. I know it's so soon..." she started. "I know you're not--"

Nissa saved her from her ambling apology. "There's a lot to do here. They need my magic." Chandra nodded. "Yours, too," Nissa added.

Chandra scoffed. "How could I possibly be of any help? Unless they want me to destroy it _more_, I don't see what good fire magic would do here." Nissa stiffened, and it dawned on Chandra what she had said. "I didn't mean--"

"I know," Nissa said softly. "I know what you meant. But there are some things we need destroyed, actually. The hedrons have fallen. Some of the islands sank. We need roadways cleared. And farmland. And," she said, looking down to the dirt again. She seemed as if she were drawing strength from it to will herself to speak. "Beyond all that... _I_ need you."

Chandra started to reach out a hand to place on Nissa's shoulder, but at the same moment, the elf was turning away. "This way," Nissa said. "I need to visit the Khalni heart."

"Oh," Chandra said. "Did a hedron land near there?"

"No," said Nissa. After a moment she reached out, taking Chandra's hand. "This is one of the ones where I just need you." She blushed and turned away again. Chadra felt her own cheeks flushing, but it wasn't out of embarrassment.

Their boots crunched through the rubble and dust and for a while, neither of them spoke. It wasn't rare for Nissa to remain silent, but Chandra rarely stopped talking, especially when she was feeling nervous. For once, though, she was content to just walk hand in hand with her friend, with her... whatever it was Nissa was for her now, listening to the wind blowing through the wastes and the few animals that dared to explore it.

Soon, green sprouts began to break through the barren white rock and the glittering bismuth. Then saplings and eventually full trees, and underbrush, and vines. 

Chandra stopped walking. Nissa turned back, concerned.

"It's beautiful," she whispered, tears threatening to escape her eyes.

"I wish you had seen it before," Nissa said in a hush.

Chandra almost blurted out that she had, but remembered that the only time she had been to Zendikar when it was still lush was the time she had been tricked into releasing the Eldrazi, the alien titans who nearly destroyed the plane, until the Gatewatch formed to stop them. 

Instead, she said, "This was barren when the heart was placed here?"

Nissa nodded. "It has three new buds," she said. "All across the plane, in the depths of the wastes. They will all look like this soon. Come on, we're nearly there."

Chandra continued walking, trying to mimic the light, reverent step that Nissa took. Instead, she felt like each plod of her boot was a meteor crushing the new life.

Chandra could smell the bloom before she saw it. It overwhelmed the mulchy smell of the forest with a sweet, floral scent that made her mouth water and her heart flutter. Then they passed between the trees and the blossom was there, a shimmering lotus big enough to hide behind. Its petals gave off a faint glow and the spring it grew in bubbled occasionally. The only sound was that of Chandra's footfalls--Nissa's steps were silent and it seemed even the wild creatures had enough respect for the heart of the world to quiet their usually frantic mating calls and territorial banter.

This time the tears rolled freely down her cheeks, hissing against the unnatural warmth of her skin. Nissa looked back at her, concerned for a moment, but there were tears in her own eyes as well.

"I have to commune with the world soul," she said. "Thank you for being here." Chandra couldn't open her throat to speak, so she nodded, wiping her tears with her leather gauntlet.

Chandra watched Nissa as she meditated, and her own mind wandered. Back to the time in the cave, when Nissa nearly died here on Zendikar, not to the incomprehensible Eldrazi, but to a demon named Ob Nixilis. It was Chandra who had rescued her then, and the other members of the Gatewatch, and from that meeting that the group soon formed. It wasn't much later that Chandra, using the mana Nissa channeled from the hedron-altered ley lines of Zendikar, was able to destroy two of the Eldrazi titans and save the plane. Chandra couldn't think of a moment when she felt more herself than then, using the fires she had so often seen as her curse to save countless people throughout the multiverse. Jaya was teaching her how to use her powers more subtly, but unleashing a plane's worth of mana on those eldritch gods was what she was _made for_. And it was Nissa right there alongside her as she did it, feeding her that power. The same woman, unbelievably, who knelt in front of her now in an implicit trust that was alien to her. 

_The kind of trust Gideon taught us. He's dead now, but he's changed us all. _

Chandra's tears had started up again, but she let them flow. 

* * *

The sky began to change colors. She couldn't see them through the canopy, but Chandra knew the sunset would be dazzling. She wished she could see it. She had taken up a seat on a low branch, but the knobs kept digging into her. She was fidgety, and kept noticing Nissa wince as she tried to move silently but inevitably broke a branch or kicked a pebble loose into the spring.

_How much longer is she going to be?_ she wondered, and loathed herself for wondering it. But still, she couldn't help but feel thrilled when Nissa started to stand, just as the last light of the day was about to disappear.

She opened her mouth to find something witty to say, but Nissa quickly turned and pressed her impossibly soft finger onto Chandra's lips. She leaned in, and for a second Chandra's heart beat hard as she thought Nissa was going to kiss her, but the elf's lips went past her own, to hear ear, where they whispered with hot breath, barely loud enough to hear. "Someone's coming."

Chandra nodded, adrenaline and fire filling her veins. She didn't let her flames out, yet, but the magic was ready to erupt, a volcano inside her that vowed that nothing would hurt this woman she loved.

They waited, and shortly sounds broke out from the forest. Loud steps and branches breaking, high-pitched cackling and conversation. Decidedly not elves.

"Goblins," Nissa whispered to Chandra. She barely had time to wonder what they were doing here when the impish creatures revealed their own motives. 

"_We take the heart_  
_And save Akoum_  
_We steal elves_  
_And make them slaves_," the goblins sang, laughing after each verse, though it didn't strike Chandra as having much humor to it. Then again, the lyrics were about as imaginative as you could expect from goblins.

Nissa placed a hand on Chandra's shoulder, and pointed to a bramble bush in the path of the goblins. In the dim light, she could barely see it growing as Nissa fed her own magic into it.Chandra prepared to let forth a jet of fire once the goblins were caught in the enchanted vines.

But the creatures weren't as stupid as they had assumed. "Them brambles! They's moving!" one of them shouted. The whole crew drew their weapons and disbursed into the underbrush.

_Damn. Guess we have to do it the hard way_, Chandra thought. But inside, she was grinning. It was way more fun to pick them off one by one than to kill them all in one shot.

She let the intense flame she had prepared loose into the bushes one of them had darted into, and was rewarded with its shrill but brief screams as the creature incinerated in moments.

_Four to go._ Chandra looked around in the shadows, but she didn't have the superior eyesight in the dark that elves and goblins did, and her blast had destroyed her night vision for the moment. _Damn, where are they?_

She heard movement off to the left, and reacted quickly enough to sidestep the javelin aimed at her head. She volleyed back with a controlled burst of fire, but by the sounds of it only got a glancing hit. 

More movement, to the right this time. Another shot of flame, but this time no cries of agony from the goblins. 

She jumped as voice suddenly spoke into her ear. "Please don't destroy the vines I am animating," Nissa whispered to her. 

"Right, sorry," Chandra whispered back. _Get your head in the game. Gids wouldn't have let a little thing like near blindness stop him from kicking ass._

Chandra breathed deeply, recalling the practices that Jaya had taught her--both in the last few months with the Gatewatch, but also in all those years before as abbess of Kheral Keep under the moniker Mother Luti. She pictured Gideon, shredding Eldrazi on this very plane until he nearly killed himself with exhaustion. She imagined Nissa, just moments ago, communing with the world soul of the plane. Chandra had felt the threads of that communion through the mana Nissa had lent her all those months ago. Perhaps it was that faint thread, or perhaps just her senses finally adjusting, but at last she could sense one of them, hiding behind a tree. It wasn't sight, exactly, but Chandra was loathe to call it anything more.

She sent a small bead of intensely hot fire towards it, arcing around the tree. On impact it exploded, consuming the goblin so quickly it barely had time to whimper.

_There we go,_ Chandra thought. _Three more like that._

But before she could enter back into her trance, Chandra was struck from behind. She almost fell over, as a weight had barreled into her upper back and was now clutching onto her shoulders and face, scrambling for purchase from its rough landing from the tree to her back.

Chandra aimed a couple blasts towards it, but they went wide. She couldn't get a good shot at it without hitting herself, and though she knew she could handle a lot of heat, she didn't think it a good idea to risk barbecuing her own face if she misjudged.

Suddenly, a vine dropped from the tree branches, near where the goblin had launched itself at her. It snaked towards her. She almost tried to dodge it before remembering Nissa's magic. The vine found the goblin on her back and twined itself around the creature's neck. Once it had wrapped a few times, it yanked back up into the tree, pulling the goblin by the throat, legs kicking as it suffocated.

Chandra turned around to see Nissa, eyes glowing green, nod to her. "Thanks!" Chandra said, grinning. Then she turned back to look for the other two goblins. She slowly backed up, hand feeling behind her, so that she and Nissa could cover each others' flanks. When her hand found her partner, the elf stiffened, but then relaxed and allowed Chandra's back to touch her own.

_A goblin in hand is worth two in the bush_, thought Chandra, smiling at her own dumb joke. The smile quickly dropped as she found the final two goblins. The were splashing through the spring towards the Khalni Heart. Chandra's heart dropped. If she missed by the slightest amount, or even had a direct hit but misjudged the flammability of goblin flesh, she could singe the heart.

"Nissa," she hissed. "The heart."

Nissa turned, and Chandra could almost feel her despair as she saw the goblins. They were nearly to the heart now, and looked like their plan was to yank it out by the roots and hope it didn't kill the thing.

"I think I can get them," Chandra whispered. Her training with Jaya was for exactly this kind of thing. Precision, not just outbursts.

"No," Nissa said. "Let them have it. Better they take it and replant it in Akoum that risk damaging it to stop them."

Chandra was at a loss. She couldn't just let the goblins _take_ the heart. Nissa had been led to it by a vision, had fought the demon Ob Nixilis to save it, and had safeguarded it all this time to restore her plane. The idea of letting a couple greedy goblins steal it was infuriating to Chandra.

"No," Chandra said, her hair alighting in flame as she tapped into the depth of her powers. "I can stop them."

She pointed out a finger and let a bead of heat build up on it. The ball, no bigger than a beetle, glowed like the sun from the intensity of the fires she poured into it. Then, with a flick she sent the ball right into the heart of one of the goblins. It had its hands around the heart's stalk, ready to start pulling. The bead sank into its flesh and it dropped dead instantly.

Chandra expected the last goblin to run away, or maybe try to surrender. After all, the creatures weren't known for their bravery, nor their prowess in dueling. What she didn't expect was for it to fly into a blind rage and dash at her with its spear.

Chandra barely had time to react, sending a wave of fire out to envelop it. It died in agony as the fires burned it alive. 

"I got them!" Chandra shouted triumphantly. "This is what I'm talking about! Fighting the bad guys, defending the innocent! Bringing the fires of justice to Eldrazi, Bolas, and even a few lowly goblins that step out of line."

But Nissa wasn't celebrating with her. She sank to her knees, horror on her face, though her eyes glowed green again with magic. Chandra followed her gaze.

Several broad-leafed plants, animated by Nissa's magic, were scooping water from the spring and pouring it onto the heart. Dread set upon her as Chandra took in the smoke and singed blackness on the petals of the Khalni heart. Her last wave of flame... she had forgotten the heart in her panic. She knelt beside her friend, placing her hand on Nissa's shoulder, but Nissa shrugged it off harshly.

"Nissa," Chandra said, with no idea what to say to make it better. "I'm so sorry. Whatever I can do to help fix this... I'll do it. Anything."

"No." was Nissa's reply, cold and hollow.

"I can, I can fertilize it, water it... I don't know. I'll sing to it. Plants like singing, right?"

"Chandra," Nissa said. "You know you don't want that."

"But I do. I want to help. I want to be here with you, to, I don't know, to regrow Zendikar so we can get back out there. Saving the multiverse, side by side."

"You don't understand, do you? I am not interested in 'saving the multiverse,' Chandra. Look what happened here. On Amonkhet. These places need me to rebuild. And there's probably countless others like them, places left in ruin in Bolas' wake or who knows what else."

"Then I'll go there with you! I'll help." Chandra was pleading, practically begging.

"No, Chandra. You want to help a different way. By doing what you are good at. You could hardly stand a single evening of meditation out here. Do you think I didn't notice your relief when the goblins showed up? That is who you are. It's who I grew to love. But it's not who I am. You are a fighter, and I am a healer." Nissa reached out a hand, cupping Chandra's cheek. She winced at the heat emanating from Chandra's face, flushed as it was with a foment of emotion, but she held it there. "I love you, Chandra. But we can't be together."

"No, Nissa, please. Don't say that. I can change. I can learn how to meditate, how to..."

Tears were rolling down her cheeks as Nissa said, "I don't want you to change, Chandra." 

She leaned forward and kissed Chandra, and her lips and tongue felt cool and soothing, like salve on a burn. Then she added, "But you have to go."

"No," Chandra said, tears pouring out of her eyes and becoming steam. "I don't know where else to go."

"Then go home," said Nissa. "While you still have one to return to."

The air grew momentarily hotter and drier, and with a sudden lick of flame, Chandra disappeared from the Zendikar.

The flames danced again, and she reappeared on Kaladesh, in her mother's kitchen. Pia Nalaar jumped at the intrusion, but recognized her daughter. A moment later, she saw the pain and ran to her. She held Chandra, stroking her hair even though it threatened to burst back into flame at any second.

"They're all gone, mom. I've lost everyone," Chandra sobbed, sucking in deep breaths of curry-scented air between fits. 

"No, Chandra," her mother said, the side of her face leaning on the top of Chandra's head. "You're just finding yourself."


End file.
